


Cameras

by LemonBubble



Series: NVTR Fics [4]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Victorian, Cecil Might be Human or Inhuman, M/M, sort of hinted at cecil/carlos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-04
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-12-31 08:58:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonBubble/pseuds/LemonBubble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victorian AU - Carlos gets one of those newfangled camera devices, only to find it doesn't really work like it should.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cameras

**Author's Note:**

> Night Vale Town Riot Prompt 6, Time Periods (Victorian)

Carlos was practically shaking with excitement when his parcel arrived. Finally, after months of waiting, he had right here in his own two hands, a shiny new hand held camera. It was the latest in photography technology, taking only seconds to properly expose the light-sensitive plate within. At last there was a way to accurately and quickly catalogue some of the less permanent things that happened in this weird town! There were so many things he wanted to take photos of. He set out to the first place that came to mind - the strange little house that just didn’t quite seem… _there_ all the time.

Of course, with such a fast and easy to use camera, Carlos couldn’t help but take a few photos along the way. He even took photos of things that were forbidden, like hooded figures and angels. The camera was just so quick to capture a scene he could take the photo and move on before anyone noticed. It was fantastic. This was sure to greatly further his scientific exploration of Night Vale.

At least, that was what he thought before he got back to the lab and developed the images. He had carefully written down what he had photographed, because a scientist is always diligent about keeping notes, and also it paid to be cautious around here where things could change so easily. So he had a neat list of the kinds of things he should be seeing in his photographs, but the final product didn’t match up with the list.

Carlos double and triple checked the list against the actual photos, making sure he hadn’t just messed up the order, but none of the pictures fit the descriptions. Eventually he sighed and decided to take the whole mess over to the one man who might be able to explain. It was only a few minutes before he was knocking on Cecil’s door.

Cecil was… well, Carlos wasn’t sure what Cecil was. No one else seemed to be sure either. He always seemed to know what was happening around the town, almost more so than the Sheriff’s Secret Police. Everyone in Night Vale had a strange box and every night Cecil’s voice would come from the box, reporting on the news of the day. Carlos suspected it had something to do with the recently discovered “radio waves” but he had no way of testing to be sure. On top of that, Cecil was the obvious person to turn to since he seemed to like Carlos, which was nice because Carlos hadn’t been in town very long and he had a feeling that Cecil’s fondness for him made the rest of the town at least tolerate him.

So, when faced with a new mystery that he suspected had a… uniquely Night Valeian answer (he tried very hard not to call it “bullshit”), Carlos would turn to Cecil for help.

“Carlos!” Cecil practically purred when he opened the door, not even taking a second to see who was there. “How lovely to see you, come inside!”

“I’m, uh, not calling for personal reasons.” Carlos said, like he always did, and, as usual, he wondered why. It’s not as if Cecil ever hinted that he _wanted_ him to call for personal reasons. Often enough he would talk about Carlos on the nightly news, report on any new science he was doing, and generally compliment his mind, his dedication to Science, and his hair. But it was all just… friendly. Nothing more. Except for maybe in those moments when they were together and Carlos was talking enthusiastically about the latest scientific mystery he had solved and Cecil would listen intently and look at him with such adoration, far beyond simply being friendly. And occasionally, when he was distracted, Cecil’s hand would drift into Carlos’ hair and gently stroke it for a moment, before Cecil noticed and pulled back suddenly. Carlos didn’t mind. It wasn’t as if he had _feelings_ for Cecil. He enjoyed Cecil’s company, that was all.

“So, what scientific mystery can I help with today?” Cecil asked. Carlos realised that, while he had been lost in thought, they had reached the sitting room and Cecil was sitting across from him, attentive and ready to help with anything.

“Oh, right. You remember I ordered a camera a while back?” Cecil nodded. “Well, it arrived today, and I took some photographs and… well, they didn’t quite turn out how I expected. I wrote down what I saw when I took the photo, but when I developed them… here, look.” Carlos took out the pictures (he was glad they had turned out right since he had never developed photos before) and showed them to Cecil. “This one is supposed to be a picture of the Peters family, they were out for a walk. And here,” he pointed at another photo, apparently of an empty stretch of sidewalk. “There was one of those things you seem to think are angels there.”

“Well,” Cecil said, nodding as if this all made sense. “The Peters family are of the Olden Faith, which means they believe that if an image of them is made it will steal part of their souls. They wouldn’t want to show up in any photograph, so they don’t. And, of course, angels aren’t real, so you couldn’t have taken a photo of one.”

For a second Carlos nodded, thinking that made sense. Then he caught himself. There was no way anything Cecil had just said made sense. This town was getting into his head.

“Well, what about this?” Carlos tried again, picking out a photo that was supposed to be of the strange house. It showed an empty lot. “This one is supposed to have that one house in it, you know the one that no one will go near?”

“Actually, that kind of explains why it’s so weird!” Cecil exclaimed, looking at the picture as if it held all the answers. “Obviously this means it doesn’t really exist! This will make a great story for the news tonight.” He pulled out a notebook and scribbled down a few lines. Carlos found he had to agree with Cecil on this one. It would explain… well, everything about the weird little house. Except for why exactly it didn’t exist when it seemed like it was just right there when you looked at it. One mystery solved, another found. It would be too easy to just have the answer for once.

“How about these, then?” Carlos asked, pointing at three photos. “This one is the vacant lot near the grocers, this one of that place the council are talking about making into a dog park, and this one is Josie’s house.”

Cecil took his time looking at those photos. The vacant lot in the picture had a massive hole in it where there was none in reality. The future dog park had what looked like a black stone monolith in the middle, and no other visible details. Old Woman Josie’s house was a patch of darkness in an otherwise ordinary scene.

“Hmmm.” Cecil said after a few minutes. “Carlos, I don’t know much about science, but are cameras _supposed_ to be able to see into the future? Or possibly the past?”

“What? No, thats…” _ridiculous, insane, nonsense,_ all things he would have said had he not been living in Night Vale for a while now. “No, they’re just supposed to show what’s _there_. What’s _really_ there, and nothing else.” Carlos said.

“Well.” Cecil said, as if he had come to some conclusion. “I should warn my listeners about the hole and tell them to stay away from the place that might be a dog park one day. I’ll have to ask Josie about the darkness in person though, I wouldn’t want to go spreading rumours.” Cecil was writing notes again. “Seems like it’ll be an interesting show tonight. Was there anything else you wanted to ask?”

“Actually, yes, since I’m here… what exactly _is_ your show? I mean, how does it work? I kind of thought it might be something to do with radio waves, but no one has ever harnessed them like you do.” Carlos asked.

“Yeeees… it’s… radio waves.” Cecil said hesitantly. “Probably. I don’t really know how it works, I’m just the Voice.” He added with a shrug. Carlos suspected he knew more than he was saying, but he didn’t press the subject. He already had enough to think about with the camera messing up and Cecil would always be there to ask later. “Anyway, it was good to see you again. I have to leave now if I want to get out to Josie’s and back before the show starts.”

“Yeah, you too.” Carlos said, and he went back to his lab. He shuffled through the photographs he had taken, each one not quite matching up with the description he had written for it. But now he knew there was a reason, however… Night Vale it was. The hooded figures hadn’t shown up because you weren’t supposed to acknowledge them. The sign above Rico’s pizza place glowed because… in the future there would be glowing signs? Carlos sighed. That was ridiculous. This whole town was ridiculous, and dangerous, and he should really just leave before it drove him mad. But… well, there were things worth staying for. And Carlos fully intended to stay, no matter how insane this place got.

**Author's Note:**

> I did like 4 hours of research into how old timey cameras worked and the histories of both photography and radio and in the end I barely even used any of the things I learned. If you want a real-life timeline, this is set in the mid-1870s, after hand held cameras were widely available, but before anyone could really do anything with radio waves.
> 
> Also mostly-in-the-closet!Cecil and super-deep-in-the-closet!Carlos because it seemed appropriate for Victorian times.


End file.
